WKU News

Dr. Özer's, Associate Professor of Mathematics, project titled “Developing a Novel Computational Framework of Piezoelectric Transducers for Contactless Energy Harvesting” was funded by the KY NSF EPSCoR under the URE program. The undergraduate students, Jacob Walterman and Samuel Leveridge, will be recruited through this grant by the end of June. The project summary states:

The traditional scheme of energy harvesting requires an outer power resource with transcutaneous or percutaneous wires that are cumbersome and prone to infection in the human body. Integration of the battery with the implants is another choice, but the battery must be replaced regularly because of its limited energy capacity, bringing postoperative pain and financial burdens to patients. A novel computational framework developed in this project is essential to provide new insights into the contactless energy harvesting of piezoelectric transducers. Improving the efficiency of mathematically reliable and robust software for energy harvesters enables to take better advantage of the piezoelectric technology since one-time design and fabrication may be unavoidable for many applications such as piezoelectrically sensed and actuated cardiac pacemakers with lifetime battery life. Our state-of-the-art differential equation model and their stable model reductions will be adaptable for differential equation-models of a large class of MEMS and HMI devices incorporating more functionalities.